Frost and Fortune
by JustAboveInsanity
Summary: Series of Christmas one-shots for Life is Strange! Suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

Kate Marsh woke with a start, weary eyes opening with a jolt as a steady stream of curses filled the air.

Initially, she thought that the disruption had come from some of the hospital's staff- that is, until she realized the noise was coming from behind her.

The blonde grew still and listened in on the conversation with both curiosity and vague anxiety, hoping that whoever had entered intended no harm.

Upon listening though, she realized that the voices belonged to none other than Chloe Price and Max Caulfield, and at the realization she released her tension. Evidently the duo hadn't noticed her flinch, as they were bickering in hushed tones.

"I said to be careful, Che! You'll wake her up if you keep falling off the damn chair," the voice belonged to Max, whose voice was laced with irritation and mild amounts of fear. "Not to mention the hospital security. I do inot/i feel like being arrested for trying to spread the Christmas joy. Especially since this is-"

"Yeah, yeah. Kate's favorite holiday. I know, Max Attack. It's hard to forget that cute little smile she gets whenever December rolls around. It sucks that she's stuck in here." Chloe cut in, and based on the ruffling of her clothes Kate assumed the bluenette had risen from her fallen position.

"Which is why we're doing this, remember? Now, since you've clearly taken the position of World's Clumsiest Punk," the brunette chimed, fumbling around with what Kate imagined to be Christmas decorations. "Move over. I'm gonna put the star on the tree."

The duo shuffled and tumbled around, and given the volume of their movement Kate took the opportunity to flip onto her other side and watch her girlfriends clumsily decorate the tree.

The sight that meet her gaze was definitely a hilarious one, and adorable now that she thought about it.

Chloe was holding Max up on her shoulders while the scrawny photographer leaned forward and shakily put the golden, glittery star up on the tree's top- what little light that came through the blinds struck the shiny star and lit up the room with a thousand smaller specks, giving Kate a better view of Max's attire.

That's where the hilarious bit came in.

Max Caulfield was festive, true, but she never- NEVER wore costumes, with the exception of Halloween given the circumstances.

But now, trying to get down from Chloe's shoulders, the hipster adorned a cute little outfit. A headband was affixed to her hair, blending in with ease among her ruffled brown locks, and welded to it was a set of silver antlers (curving so the ends pointed to one another) and two rounded deer ears (a pale brown that easily stuck out against the darker shading of her hair).

And on top of that, as Kate soon realized with a closer examination, Max had a small red nose painted on her face and a small tail attached to the back of her jeans.

Kate found herself smiling gleefully, aware that the brunette had worn the costume to cheer her up.

Eventually Max managed to climb down from her perch, giving a small huff as she did. Chloe snickered in response and the two cared on for a while, wrapping tinsel around the tree before hanging a few ornaments as well.

(Kate couldn't tell from where she was, but she was fairly certain a few of them were painted on by Chloe and Max respectively; cute little designs and well wishes scrawled on white and silver balls.)

Eventually Chloe walked off to get the lights and complete their work, and Kate debated revealing her consciousness- but, sure enough, fate had one more little punchline in store for the night.

"Hey Maxipad- catch!" Chloe whisper-shouted to her partner in crime, tossing the strong of lights towards the photographer.

Max had just turned when the lights sailed towards her, and she yelped out in surprise before stumbling back.

The room was silent for a second and Max found herself tangled in a mess of wires and lights, the look of shock and confusion melting into fury as she shot Chloe a glare.

Chloe was clutching her stomach and holding a hand firmly over her mouth, muffled laughter coming in low tones as Max scowled.

"Glad you think this is funny, you ass! Now help me get this damn thing off before she wakes up."

Kate decided now would be a good moment to reveal herself, muffling her own laughter and hiding her grin with her hand. The sheets swished against each other as she sat up, prompting her lovers to whip around and face her with surprise etched across their respective features.

"Kate, how long have you been awake?! I'm SO sorry if we woke you up, babe." Chloe was the first to speak, moving in strides towards the blonde before wrapping her up in a hug.

Max quickly joined them, though her pace was slowed be the wires dangling precariously around her.

"Ever since you fell off the chair earlier, but it's fine. It was fun to watch you two work." Kate shot both of them a smile, which they returned without hesitation. "I do have a question though..." she continued, narrowing her eyes slightly to squint at them both.

"Shoot." Max replied, her blue eyes gleaming with curiosity.

"How did you two get in here without alerting security?"

Chloe and Max stilled at that, giving one another sideways glances before Max decided to reply.

"Well, we iare/i the Blackwell ninjas. I'm a sneaking pro and Chloe is good at finding out patrol routes."

Kate shook her head at their antics, then yawned into her palm before sliding back under the sheets.

"Alright then. I'm going back to bed; we can pretend I didn't wake up. Try not to let security catch you whenever you leave."

"Night then, babe." Chloe responded, giving Kate a small kiss on the cheek while Max pressed a quick kiss to her forehead.

With that Kate drifted off, a smile still stretched on her face while her girlfriends sat beside her.

And when she woke up in the morning, she found the two of them seated at her bedside, snoozing peacefully while sunlight and Christmas lights covered the room.


	2. Chapter 2

With a tired grunt Rachel Amber shrugged Chloe's arm off of her shoulders, the scent of smoke having awoken her from much needed sleep. _Who the hell is cooking at this ungodly hour?_ she thought bitterly, rolling off the bed to tumble to her feet.

She continued to gripe and groan as she reached the door, opening it only to gag on a much more concentrated stench. _Whoah! Okay, this definitely isn't Joyce's fault... Whoever did this must be one shitty cook._ That in mind, as Rachel creeped down the stairs and narrowed her eyes she nearly jolted to a stop.

"Max, need some help in there?" she inquired, watching carefully as the brunette spun around.

It was almost amusing, really. Covered in burnt dough and smoke stains, Max still managed to look as irritatingly adorable as usual.

(Maybe even more so.)

"Rachel! Jesus, you scared the shit out of me," Max sputtered out, setting down what appeared to be a third failed batch of.. well, Rachel wasn't quite sure. Cookies, perhaps? "And, uh, no. I've got this- I think."

Rachel rolled her eyes and quickly walked down the rest of the stairs, gliding into the kitchen with her normal ease. "Oh no, Super Max. That's three failures I see behind you- don't even start pretending they aren't there. I'm helping you and that's final."

Such nature was to be expected of an Amber, one could suppose.

"Ugh… Fine," the brunette replied, pouting slightly before scrapping the most recent failures off the tray and into the trash. "I suppose I could use a bit of help."

Rachel smirked in response, quickly walking over to all the bowls Max had left scattered about on the counter. "This'll be fun, you'll see. Now, hand me some eggs and let's get to work!"

It was easier between the two of them, and soon enough they were shoving the pan back into the oven.

(Not before multiple, playful fights though- Max had some cookie dough on her nose and her arms while Rachel was partly covered in flour.)

"Alright! Now that they're being prepared, how about we handle our current predicament, eh?" Rachel proposed shortly after, gesturing to the copious stains they had gathered.

"Yeah.. probably best if we handle this quickly. I don't think Che would appreciate all the flour we got on her clothes." Max replied, wincing slightly with a frown.

But quickly enough her expression melted back into a grin, her blue eyes gleaming happily.

"Speaking of Che, we should probably wake her up when the cookies are done. That's actually why I was down here- I wanted to surprise you both. I can still surprise one of you though!"

"Aw, Max. That's so sweet. If I didn't know better I'd call you a cinnamon roll. Well, maybe I would anyways, but with an s instead of a c," the taller of the pair replied, giving Max a quick hug only to pull back when she remembered their current situation. "Ah, now let's go handle this mess, shall we?"

The pair quickly bolted to the bathroom, eager to wash off whatever muck they could from their skin.

Soon enough the two only had to worry really about changing their clothes later on, probably after the cookies were done. Though, with a quick glance, Rachel noted Max hadn't washed off some of the cookie dough.

"Max, you've still got dough on your face." the blond quipped, confirming that she wasn't just seeing things when Max tilted her head up a bit to look at her.

"Are you cereal?" the photographer replied with a groan, resisting the urge to just try and blindly wipe it off. "Where'd I miss?"

"Right here," Rachel replied, and before Max could ask where exactly that was the taller of the pair swooped down and gave the brunette a quick peck on the lips. Crafty as ever, she quickly licked up the little dough spot Max had left behind before pulling back to watch her reaction with a grin. "There, got it."

Max turned scarlet in seconds, her freckles less evident under the searing red-pink that coated her cheeks. The photographer gaped up at Rachel momentarily, her mouth opening and closing without noise as she scrambled for a response.

Unable to find one, the brunette simply shut her mouth and lightly hit the taller girl on the arm, prompting a laugh from the other.

"Oh come on babe, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. You're just too sweet!"

"Rachel was that a fucking pun?"

"What can I say? Like a good baker I rise to the occasion, it's the yeast I can do."

"Oh my DOG. Rachel, please."

"But Maxi~ I have so many good ones! Like, when it comes to making desserts you really take the cake."

"You know what Rachel? We may disagree, but let's decide to hash it over."

Rachel sputtered out a laugh in response, to which Max grinned widely and tugged her back to the kitchen. "Alright, alright. Enough of that. Come on Rach, I think the cookies are done!"

The duo quickly made their way back into the kitchen, Max moving to get a plate and Rachel moving to take the pan out of the oven.

Soon enough, they had a moderately large mound of gooey chocolate chip cookies stacked up on one of Joyce's platters, both eyeing the pile uncertainly.

"Think we made too much?" Max inquired, turning away from their creation.

"Probably. But Chloe is like an animal when she gets hungry, so we might've made enough for us to have some too."

At that the pair chuckled, then made their way up the stairs.

Before they even reached the top they heard something thump loudly on the floor, coming from the direction of Chloe's room.

Eyeing one another wearily, Rachel moved to open the door while Max left a good amount of walk space (or run-and-dive space) on the stairwell.

"Chlo? Are you up?" Rachel voiced in a hushed tone, slowly opening the door.

Not but moments later a half asleep, blue haired Price bounded through the door, skidding to a stop. The tallest of the trio had a red mark on the side of her face, most likely from having fallen a few minutes prior.

"Yep! And I smell somethin' good. What did you two trouble makers do?" Chloe quipped quickly, far too fast for someone who'd just woken up. It was unnatural, really, but Rachel and Max would put it down as Chloe's sugar tooth sending the punk into overdrive.

"Come and see for yourself, Priceless." Max replied, making her way back down the stairs while waving for the other two to follow.

Chloe's face broke into a grin as she sprinted (and nearly tripped) down the stairs.

Max rolled her eyes but smiled, catching the punk's arm before she could faceplant onto the floor below.

And if there were any words to describe Chloe Price's face when she saw the still warm desert they'd left out, it would most likely be something along the lines of "her face lit up and glowed with joy, and fireflies danced in her eyes before she dived forward".

Such a line was best used by the ongoing dialogue in Rachel's head, along with many more.

A few hours later the trio had reclined on the couch, the remaining cookies in a glass jar they'd found while cleaning up.

Chloe was out like a light with Rachel following close behind, and Max merely chuckled at the two.

 _Yep,_ she uttered in her head, bright blue eyes sliding shut. _I love these over enthusiastic punks._


End file.
